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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

I wrote previously about the difficulty of studying a phenomenon with the phenomenon itself, in other words, "Can consciousness comprehend its own mechanics?".

We have to say "Yes" or else pull up stakes and move on to some other subject, but otherwise we really have to get a handle on how we work with the limitations inherent in this subject. My point in my last blog was that our ego-mind is designed to do one thing, and it is not naturally going to adapt to a multi-consciousness model of how perception works.

But from what I have seen, and many parapsychologists agree, along with most psychologists, that there are multiple consciousnesses at work in each of us. I have come to understand that the other consciousness seems to have different senses, what JB Rhine would describe as an Extra Sense. And again, we lump all these PSI phenomenon together as perhaps manifestations of one "Superpower of the Biomind" as Ingo Swann would call it, but in fact there may be multiple other senses in use by these other consciousness. So you are probably rolling your eyes at this point but that is precisely my point from the last blog, even suggesting such a mechanical structure for your mind is absurd, because the ego-consciousness cannot tolerate the idea. And that's as far as such speculation gets in most people.

Keeping in mind of course it could be a stupid notion, too. These blog entries of mine do not reflect the opinion of the RRC, and if you have any insight or concern you wish to provide regarding what I have written, please drop me an email at bbogle@triad.rr.com.

I could be barking up the wrong tree regarding sensory modalities for other consciousnesses. Take a look at the evidence, then place it in a multi-consciousness model, and see how it fits. Please resist the temptation to take the "black box" of Parapsychology and try to fit in it black boxes from other sciences, all that does is make a bigger black box. We will be having a guest speaker at our next Remote Viewing meeting on October 15th at 7pm. This person has been developing a data gathering website for PSI testing, and will be presenting the findings as well as the ideas that the evidence has suggested. This will be a great example of studying PSI with the data of the phenomenon, and I hope you can all be there.
-- Benton Bogle

Friday, September 10, 2010

In a recent blog I talked about multiple minds or consciousnesses, and it is my, Rene Warcollier and scads of current parapsychological enthusiast's belief that PSI data, and other information too, comes to our waking consciousness from another consciousness. That is pretty standard fare. But what is not so typical is what I am about to suggest. As a matter of fact you may consider it a bit weird, but that is simply because your measure of weird is completely controlled by your ego-mind.

The ego mind is in charge, it is your normal, every-day consciousness that tells you who you are, and how the world works. It tells you what is weird and what is normal. It is the center from which you view the world, it is who "you" define yourself to be, and it is the point on the graph that you measure out every thing. For a much more thorough and thought provoking exploration of this idea, check out Mark Leary's book "The Curse of the Self".

It is a function of our normal waking ego-consciousness to define itself, then do everything it can to promote that self. So it is natural to note that some of the most horrifying and abhorrent things to the ego-mind are things that threaten its self-definition. The very idea of other consciousnesses sharing its space is unacceptable to the normal consciousness, and it does what it can to refute such things. As a matter of fact, look how the waking consciousness has labeled that other consciousness. We call it the "subconscious" or the "unconscious", when in fact it is quite the equal to the normal waking mind and in many ways superior, in the areas of memory, multi-functioning and creativity, not to mention PSI information. It certainly isn't "un-conscious", it seems quite aware and active and capable. We give it such unflattering names because it scares the ego-mind, along with other things like death and lack of "control". Our definition of this other consciousness, by describing it as under, below, beneath or alien to the normal mind, shows how the ego-mind wants to relate to it. But even though the ego-mind is designed to work toward greater "self definition" so it can take better biological care of itself, we limit our greater potential by alienating a real part of our psyche, and we also cut ourself off from the source of PSI data.

The history of modern psychology as a science has been one of gradually warming up to the non-ego-mind that exists in us. Many current self-help psychology books will help you "find yourself" and help you strengthen your ego-control. But others assist the reader in developing the self-assurance necessary to open up communication and friendly interaction with our other minds. My reading of the literature, and my personal experiences, as well as most religions, tell us that this consciousness that transcends the ego-mind is consciousness without selves. But this idea is so scary to the ego-mind, it mocks and fights attempts to view the universe as anything other than the product of the ego-mind. Psychology, parapsychology, and most if not all other sciences view the world through the lens of the ego-mind, and I suspect that future breakthroughs in the sciences will require a new point of reference in our understanding of consciousness and the ego-mind's place in it. When Copernicus asked his fellow thinkers to move the point of reference from earth to the sun, they struggled because it required them to change the universe. I have found that to work with Remote Viewing as we do in our monthly group, and in our daily sessions, we benefit from changing our minds, and in doing so, changing our universe. The associate consciousness in each of us is accessible, and it is there that the PSI data we are looking for is to be found. With a little patient, persistent and careful effort, just like you build a relationship with another, you can improve your communication with this associate-consciousness.
-- Benton Bogle

Friday, September 3, 2010

I am re-reading Rene Warcollier’s “Mind to Mind” as published by Hampton Roads, with a preface by Ingo Swann, no less. It’s a wonderful book I would recommend to anyone interested in parapsychology and the early studies of PSI. My point here is not to critique the book but instead to point out how frontier science forces its participants to be uncomfortably adaptable in their evolving understanding of what they are observing. There is certainly a great deal of data showing the phenomenon exists, and certainly variables that can be tweaked to improve or degrade PSI events in a lab setting, there is not a model that describes how it works that is accepted by the field, and can be used to explain why changes in variables cause changes in PSI performance.

Mr. Swann in his preface points out how Mr. Warcollier’s contemporaries in the Institute Métapsychique International explored with a model for how PSI worked that was different from their British or American counterparts. This American model was looking for some sort of communication between the conscious minds of the participants as though they were physically connected through some faint communications channel. The French model was looking for the transfer of information to occur between non-conscious aspects of the subjects. Its this idea that lead to the use of the term “Extra-sensory” perception in that there are sensory modalities other than the 5 we are familiar with.

Of course this idea of multiple consciousnesses is not new either, Freud made the idea famous generations ago. From my own experiences it appears that there exists in each of us other consciousnesses that are processing information too, as our waking ego-consciousness does, though perhaps not limited to the single focus our ego’s have to work with. This other consciousness seems to use some of our five senses to get information and may process that information through our brains using the same brain areas our conscious ego-mind does. The other consciousness(s) seem also to have other senses, modalities to process information, than our ego-minds do, and this is where the PSI information comes in.

Perhaps, as we go through our day, sensory information is coming in and utilized by our ego-mind and our other consciousness, and they both are processing that information for whatever function they use it for. As they are perhaps sharing brain areas to process information, it is here that some PSI data “leaks” over into our conscious minds. It may be that the data passing through the neurons are in a pattern that is utilized one way for the ego-mind and another way for the other consciousness. Its may be similar to the way some machines process numbers in hexadecimal and some in decimal, and there are parts of the hexadecimal that are recognizable by a decimal number reader but not all of it, so the decimal processer is getting only part of the data.

Since there would be more “leakage” if the two minds are processing the same data at the same time, that is why it helps in PSI testing to use “intent” to draw the attention of both consciousnesses to the same event. That is why PK and ESP data shows up more when the event is important, because both consciousnesses are attending to it and processing the event.

If you are curious about what things interest the other consciousness, just take a look at anecdotes about PSI events to figure that out. Go back and read Stacy Horn's recent book "Unbelievable" and examine the stories about what was effective in ESP research back in the early days of PSI lab work. It seems that the “other consciousness” is interested in emotion, relationship, novelty and life-changing events. I would suspect that adding more of these qualities to PSI research would be beneficial in increasing the occurrence of PSI. Re-reading Warcollier’s book and looking at other studies of paranormal events while keeping this other consciousness in consideration really shines a new light on one’s understanding of the PSI process. This slightly different take on “how PSI works” has evolved for me as I read over current studies, and reflect on the great wealth of research done in the past, such as those of Warcollier.
--Benton Bogle